Wednesday 25 May 2011

What a refreshing change!

Like most charitable set ups we spend quite a lot of time and effort finding sources of funding. This is a time consuming process: researching among the hundreds of trusts to find those who are not offended by the name of Jesus, who are not doing homelessness this year or do not give funds to anything in central London. Then, on finding a possible match there are never ending forms to fill in, the on line ones normally clearing all your information just before you are ready to hit 'send'. Not unreasonably the donor may want progress reports on how the money has been spent with ominous threats if a penny goes anything outside of their narrow focus. How delightful, then to find a sprinkling of Christians who set up trusts which they administer personally. We recently received a donation from just such a trust,  Pauline (LJC fund raiser and my wife) wrote a simple letter out- lining our work and asking for £500 towards our healing prayer service, back comes a cheque for £2,500 with a positive letter saying; 'spend it how you think most fit'.
True philanthropy is open handed, oh that there was more of it about. Do Christians need to waste time with stunts and arm twisting in order to support the Lord's work? When William Booth wanted to know the spiritual temperature of a Salvation Army Corps he would ask what the financial giving was like. We need to put our money where are mouths are.

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